


The Guardian Has Your Heart

by afinch



Category: Night at the Museum (Movies)
Genre: Fix-it fic, M/M, Post-Canon
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-07-31
Updated: 2017-07-31
Packaged: 2018-12-09 13:24:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,573
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11670000
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/afinch/pseuds/afinch
Summary: "C'mon, Larry. Time to be your own man," he whispered.





	The Guardian Has Your Heart

**Author's Note:**

  * For [dreamiflame](https://archiveofourown.org/users/dreamiflame/gifts).



> I hope I did your prompt justice! Enjoy!

"Father, this tablet, does it have other powers?" Ahk stood nervously before his father. It had been a year since being in London, and while Tilly was great, she was no Larry. Larry, who made him feel things he did not know he could. Larry, Guardian of Brooklyn, who had saved him by giving him life. He wanted to return the favor.

His father smiled knowingly, "Ah, my son. One has caught you eye. The lady from Asia?"

Mulan. She had been defensive at first, ready to charge. Something about needing to defend all of China.

Ahk shook his head, "No father. One from New York."

"Ah!" his father beamed, "The lovely guide. I knew she was not for the stocky President."

Ahk shook his head again, "No father, not _her_."

And recognition dawned on his father's face. Ahk bit his lip. He only ever wanted his father's approval.

"Ah," said his father, quietly. "The Guardian has your heart."

"Yes, father."

"Very well," the pharaoh said. "Though I cannot help you with your desire."

"I see." The young prince held his head. He looked up as his father brushed his fingers across his face. "But only because there is no enchantment I can give. I would, if only to see you happy. You are here, united with me and your mother, but your heart has been lonely. I had wished someone closer, to give you peace. I cannot give you peace, my son."

Ahk nodded. So that was that. No hope of the tablet having more powers. No hope of seeing Larry again, unless he was to come to London. Perhaps Larry felt the same way. But wasn't it true while they were dying, it was the capuchin he had gone to? Larry's heart belonged to someone else.

The father and son spoke nothing of it, and the time passed.

*

"And, so, it's been decided, you're going to America!" Tilly beamed at them. "Isn't that wonderful? I've contacted Larry and well, he's moved on, everyone must, of course, but you'll get to go back to the museum and see all your old friends and oh, I'm coming too, isn't that nice? Me! In America! I can't wait to …"

Tilly trailed off. While Ahk would be thrilled with this news, it instead filled him with dread. He would go to New York, and his heart still pined for Larry, but Larry did not pine for him. It would be heartbreaking, every night he was there.

"There is magic in the tablet, for you to seek what you want," a voice whispered to him. He looked up, startled. 

"Mother!"

"There is magic, to give eternal life to your family," she continued. "I am not as old as your father, I know the new ways. I know who your heart has been pining for. There is magic, if you wish to give him our most precious gift."

She spoke quietly, and for the first time in three years, Ahk's heart thumped loudly in his chest.

*

**British Exhibit To Revive History Museum!** screamed the paper. Larry set it down in the teacher's lounge and sighed. He'd had a lot to think about in the last few years. He'd gone to school, taught kids, passed the magic on to them. He was the coolest history teacher at PS 502 and kids begged to be in his class. More than half of them went on to take AP History, their passion sure to carry them to museums far and wide across the world. 

As for him? He'd never stepped foot back inside after taking the fall for the disastrous event. He couldn't bear to look at them. He had thought, once or twice, about going to London, but the questions about what he'd say to Ahk kept him at bay. What could he say? "It was always you?" That was trite. Ahk would see right through that. Besides, Ahk probably had other royal mummies to go hook up with, and even that idea made Larry shudder. He didn't want to risk it. 

Something a girl in his class said that afternoon gave him pause.

"Mr Daley," she said. "You've always said the Pharaoh's were your favorite. What do you like about them?"

And he found he couldn't answer the question. The class had laughed, and Larry had laughed it off with them. It was enough though, to get him to the museum that night. To see the party inside, to know that Ahk was just yards away. 

"C'mon, Larry. Time to be your own man," he whispered. 

*

Rexy noticed him first and practically tore the door down. 

"Easy boy," Larry said. "I know you miss me, I gotta do something first."

"Larry! I knew you'd come-"

"Not know Teddy. Sac, hi."

He was nearly bowled over by the blonde. "Oh, you said you weren't gonna come and I thought, that can't be right, of course he's going to come, how could you miss this magic, and then you seemed so sure and …"

Tilly faded into the distance. They all faded into the distance. The only one he had sights on was Ahk. 

The capuchin jumped on him, excited, and Larry gently disentangled him and handed him to Ed. "In a minute, Dex," Larry said quietly. "I have to …"

"Come on," he heard Dr McPhee say. "Give them some space. Come on now, Taurus, Larry's got the whole night ahead of him. Let's go, come on then, up you get, more room down the hall - we'll leave Egypt open for you!" Dr McPhee ushered the group out, and Larry was pleased to see Lancelot jump to task and help herd everyone - and everything - out. Of course he would. He understood quests for Guinevere's.

Larry would have to remember to thank them both, later. 

"Ahk," he started, but the Egyptian held up his hand. 

"No, let me." He looked straight at Larry, and Larry nodded. "I have missed you. I did not know it was you that I was-"

"Me either," Larry interrupted. "I'm so, so - I didn't."

"We must go to Egypt," Ahk said. "There is much I have to tell you."

The two ran, not walked, through the halls to Egypt, where it was empty, just as been promised. Ahk closed the doors, and smiled at his old tomb. Then he turned to Larry, eyes glistening.

"I can give you eternal life," he said, all in one breath. 

That was unexpected. "You can? How?" 

"The tablet extends to my family. There's a ritual. To make you family. Please, Larry. I could not bear three years without you, I cannot bear an eternity," Ahk looked close to tears. While the two were standing close together, they were not quite touching. "You could be with me, forever, at the museum there is so much we can-"

"Forever? I can't live forever, Ahk. I just came to say that we should make the most of the time that we're here."

Ahk looked devastated, "I cannot be with you if it is not forever, Larry. Please. Please, I beg of you. Do not curse me to an eternity of a broken heart. Do you not feel the way I do? Do you not go to sleep thinking of me and have me the first thought of you when you wake? Are your days less colorful than they were because I am not in it? Do the finest of jewels lose their shine because they are not reflected in my eyes? Is your soul not restless, as mine is?"

Larry didn't think about what he was doing; he leaned forward and kissed Ahk. Ahk was kissing him back and for how long they stood there, Larry didn't know. When they broke, Larry doubled over, gasping for breath. Ahk knelt next to him, patting him on the shoulder. "There there, love can be overwhelming, or so my mother tells me."

"But I can't live forever," Larry said. "I can't believe I just kissed you, either. I can't rush any-"

"Yes," Ahk interrupted. "Rush things. Take a leap of faith, Larry, Guardian of Brooklyn. Become Guardian of Ahkmenrah, his eternal lover. You never have to wonder, ever again. You never have to chase the next best thing, because it will always be right beside you. Your soul is restless. It is why you … why you teach? A new class every year? Something always new? Always hoping for that one spark to catch fire in someone, so you can hope to live through them?"

"It's like you know me," Larry breathed. "It's like you know all of it. I can't just … I don't even know what you're saying. I don't know what you're offering. Do I have to …" die? He wanted to ask, but he trailed off on the final word. 

Ahk pressed a hand to Larry's heart. "You only have to trust this," he said. "And trust me, Larry. Do you trust me?"

Larry looked up at the man he had come to admire and love. They'd had many grand adventures together. "Yes," he whispered. "I trust you."

*

Larry Daley had disappeared. He'd left work after leaving a newspaper about the exhibit in the teacher's lounge, and had never been seen again. The museum held a memorial service and nearly one hundred of his former students showed up. 

Meanwhile, in London, the figure of Ahkmenrah embraced an unidentified man, as though he were embracing a lover.


End file.
